Winding Down

Each day now we get closer to station opening, November 1st. This is the nominal date when we will see our first LC-130 flight (weather permitting). Inbound LC-130s have to wait until the temperatures are reliably above -50 F because that is the lowest temperature their landing gear hydraulics are rated for.

Even though the station has not yet opened, we have already seen a couple Twin Otters and Baslers fly through. Seeing the first new faces in 8 months, I did my best to completely avoid them. Although, one of the Basler crews was nice enough to bring in fresh fruit ("freshies"), and I enjoyed my first apple in months. The Basler's are actually still here, unable to escape the pole due to the poor weather we've been having the past week.

A Basler aircraft is stuck at the south pole in blowing snow. 

When the Basler's finally do make it out, they might even take some mail for us, which normally takes a long time to make it out on the LC-130s.

The Twin Otters and Baslers are operated by Kenn Borek Air, and fly down from Canada to McMurdo, where they service field camps. So unlike the LC-130s flying to Pole from Christchurch, they fly from Canada through the Americas, cross from Chile to Rothera Station, and then fly to Pole. I think sometimes they stop along the way, landing in the middle of nowhere to switch from tires to skies.

Although the winter is winding down, the work load on station has been increasing. On top of the ongoing Rodwell repairs, preparing for opening means that everyone is busy cleaning and organizing the station for the 40 people that will come in on the first flight. People who operate the loaders have been busy grooming the runway for incoming flights.


Other outgoing mail:

• Everyone has also been busy packing up their rooms, and planning travel
• I'm one of the unlucky ones who has to move rooms for the new people coming in, so I have to move rooms 10 days before I fly out anyway - this is a process winterovers generally consider extremely unfair
• The weather the past week has been extremely poor, meaning the Kenn Borek Air crews have been stuck on station for days. I've been doing my best to hide. 
• But wait! If there was a window of good weather, why wasn't the runway groomed? Why didn't the groomers get the previous day off so that they could prepare the runway overnight when the weather improved? Isn't getting the Baslers off base top priority since one of them is supposed to immediately return from McMurdo with a group of technicians that are supposed to fix the Rodwell? Why is the only person on station with experience as a fuelie no longer working in the fuel pit? These are good questions... please consult the Logic Column. 

Next Week in Pole: Trying to take over the world